Lasagna Rolls

Waaay off track on the menus around here.
I'm discovering it's hard for me to stick to a menu with Michigan weather as schizophrenic as it is. I'm one who very much likes warm, traditional, home style meals on cool cozy days like Chicken Pot Pie or Lasagna or Meatloaf and potatoes. On hot days I hate to cook and I try to think of the easiest and least heat-involved-preparation meals possible, like grilled chicken salad, or salad, or grilled steak and salad, or salad, or hamburgers, or salad. Like I said, cool and easy.
The weather here is so unpredictable that I'll have one thing written down, but when it actually gets to that day of the week, it's like 95 degrees and the last thing I want to make is a casserole or fajitas or anything involving the stove or oven.

Anyway, we finally just made our Lasagna Rolls today. I have been craving them for weeks (and had them on the menu but between the weather and actually taking the time to make them it just hasn't happened). We love this way of making lasagna. It seems easier than making the normal layered lasagna and it is sooo much easier to serve. This is an excellent recipe for singles, couples, or small families too, because it's easy to split them up and put them in smaller disposable aluminum pans to freeze for single servings later on.
We usually make these ahead of time since it is a bit of a process, like the night before, and then just refrigerate and pop them in the oven for dinner.
We kind of made up our own recipe that's actually a combination of these two recipes here and here.

Lasagna Roll-Ups
makes 16 rolls
1/2 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
1 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg slightly beaten
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 jars pasta sauce
Lasagna Noodles

Boil water for noodles.
Brown ground beef, drain, and then mix in chopped mushrooms, onion and garlic, cooking over medium heat until onions are tender.
Add noodles to the boiling water, and cook to al dente. DO NOT OVERCOOK!
While noodles are boiling, in a bowl thoroughly combine beef mixture with the ricotta and mozzarella cheeses and add egg.
Pour about 3/4 of a jar of pasta sauce into 13x9 baking dish.
When the noodles are done, lay them out flat, spread thinly with a spoonful of pasta sauce and then some of the meat/cheese mixture over the length of it. Spread it evenly, being generous, but not so thick that you have trouble rolling up the noodle. Carefully roll up noodles and place seam side down in baking dish.

Spread remaining sauce over pan full of roll-ups, sprinkle with parmesan and bake, covered in foil for about 30 min at 350*. Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 min.



**Hint's for the noodles... keep the water boiling gently while they're cooking so that they don't stick together. Use tongs or two wooden spoons to gently fish the noodles out individually without breaking them. I usually cook about 15+ noodles if I want a pan-full of 12 roll-ups, due to some not making it through the process whole!
As you remove them from the water, place a layer of saran wrap on the counter and lay out three noodles on the wrap. Cover those three with another layer of saran wrap, three more noodles, and just pile them up that way. This prevents the noodles from sticking to each other and they are all ready for assembly three at a time!